American variety show world begins with subduing Jason

Will Goode flicked his wide robe sleeves, drew out a long, white wand made of finger bones, and pointed it a few times in the air.

Chest-high sandstone tablets protrude from the wall, covered with a dense string of names, their sharp, rigid turns suggesting they were carved with a sharp tool.

In the blank space at the bottom, wisps of stone dust fell, and as the dark light shimmered, two new names gradually took shape.

"A gay couple, driven by love turned to hate, finally suffered a mental breakdown under external pressure, leading to a series of tragedies. In order to minimize the negative impact, the police chose to handle the matter discreetly... A perfect script, isn't it?"

“That’s true.” Nick continued his brother’s words. “The motive is very strong, and they can use the excuse of protecting the reputation of a special group to persuade their superiors to cover up the details and reduce the risk of attracting attention.” He paused and glanced at the clansmen.

"The TV station will not provide any follow-up reports..."

"The hospital will keep the details of the dead and injured confidential..."

The members of the Goode family all smiled, revealing the smug smiles of those in positions of power.

Access to information is free... but what information you can access is up to me!

Life is priceless... but how much impact your life can have is for me to judge!

The dissemination of information is one of the greatest powers in the world. If I control this, I can make you live in obscurity and die in obscurity!

Just then, Nick's cell phone vibrated at an inopportune moment.

"What? They found some information on the internet and went to the police station for help?" His good mood abruptly shattered, a flash of anger crossed Will's eyes, and he blurted out a curse:

"XXX, this damned internet age has actually made these low-level web crawlers somewhat knowledgeable. Can't they just die like the sacrifices of the past, without any real understanding?"

Chapter 312 The mantis stalks the cicada

"Buzz!"

The bicycle wheel crushed the small, oval-shaped nut, turning it into a pulverized paste that left a long, winding, brownish-green trail on the road.

Avoiding the remaining ripe acorns that had fallen to the ground, Deaver pedaled breathlessly, glancing sideways at his sister in the car next to him.

"It's understandable that the police don't believe us. What do we do now?"

"Let's go home first. I've already contacted Sami, and she'll be here soon."

After spending most of the day at the police station, Tina was only able to leave after being half-coaxed and half-persuaded by Sheriff Nick. Frustrated, she quickened her pace.

Even though poor children mature early and accumulate some social experience through hard work, she is still just a novice high school student who hasn't graduated yet. When faced with such a big event, she is still undecided and instinctively wants to stay in the most familiar environment.

The winter sun sets early; by four or five o'clock, the sky darkens, and the houses and trees on both sides of the street are silhouetted against the twilight.

Because the surrounding area is sparsely populated, both Sun Valley, where the wealthy gather, and Linyin Town, where the impoverished gather, are sister towns only a few kilometers apart. The residential buildings are quite spacious and scattered, which is probably the only thing that makes them equal.

In a corner of the residential area, a few holly trees leaned forlornly against the faded fence, their unkempt dark green leaves covered with a layer of dust. In front of the half-old bungalow, a slender figure kicked the grass listlessly.

"Hi, Tina." Although their conversation on the phone was as normal as ever, the girl was still a little embarrassed to meet in person again, especially since Tina had just had a conflict with her boyfriend the day before. She took the initiative to greet her and tried to ease the awkwardness.

"Hi, Sa..." The dry response came to an abrupt halt, as if it had been cleanly severed by a knife.

The next moment, the brown-haired girl's pupils reflected... a bicycle rushing towards her at breakneck speed?

"Get out of the way-!"

She instinctively dodged, colliding with Tina who lunged at her.

Before the bewildered question could be uttered, a flash of cold light swept across, effortlessly separating the basket, leaving a deep mark on the metal frame, and finally embedding itself into the seat.

A tall figure wielding a sharp blade suddenly appeared, and beneath a pale white skull mask, two murky gray-black eyes stared blankly at him.

"Get inside!" In this critical moment, the physique developed through years of cheerleading came in handy. The Black girl grabbed her terrified brother and ex-girlfriend, one in each hand, and rushed into the house, slamming the door shut behind her.

Before she could even catch her breath, a boning knife, along with a blackened hand, smashed through the door and shoved inside.

Amidst terrified screams, a hand stiffly reached back, tearing apart half of the door. As wooden shards flew, they knocked the toy mask askew, revealing a blank face of a young man.

"Benjamin Ryan!"

Deaver, who was slumped on the floor, curled up in a ball and trembling, suddenly widened his eyes as he remembered the photo on the computer. "It's the killer of the 1988 department store massacre, Benjamin Ryan... How could it be?" His jaw clenched and his fat face contorted in fear.

"He should have been shot dead by the police at the scene of the crime more than a decade ago!"

……

……

Inside the confined space, a thick, viscous liquid, as turbid as asphalt, still lingered and churned on the ground. Black, mud-like, malevolent substances climbed and intertwined, forming bones and muscles that transformed into human figures.

There was a woman in red holding a razor...

A man carrying an axe covered by a burlap sack...

A strange child, covered in blood and carrying a metal baseball bat...

If a veteran police officer familiar with the local history were here, he would recognize at a glance that these are all the murderers who have appeared in the town over the past century.

These beings, which had long since turned into withered bones, have reappeared through the power of evil.

The slick, yellowish-brown human-skin paper pages were turned by the old fingers.

A hoarse, aged voice chanted ancient incantations with varying intonation.

The grayish-yellow flames swirled and condensed, like a smooth mirror, vaguely reflecting the scene of Tina and her two companions desperately trying to avoid the attackers inside the house.

The elderly man with gray hair slowly closed the magic book, his hawk-like eyes shooting out a sharp gaze as he swept over the group of his younger relatives standing beside him.

"Don't they have any ability to adapt to changing circumstances? So what if the sacrifices discover something is wrong? Shouldn't they be taken into custody first?"

Faced with the family head's slightly displeased questioning, Will chuckled sheepishly:

“We were just worried that you wouldn’t be able to get back in time to share feedback on the ceremony.”

State Representative Andrew Goode snorted, his expression softening slightly. "Of course I won't miss this opportunity. Once the ritual transforms the life of the sacrifice into blessings, my charm, eloquence, thinking ability, leadership qualities, subtle spiritual influence, and even lifespan will be greatly enhanced."

He smiled proudly, radiating youthful energy beyond his years. "What can those muddle-headed, decaying old men in the state legislature do against me? Deodorant for the elderly and adult diapers?"

Andrew raised his head, smugly sneering at his political opponents.

He made a few gestures, and numerous magical puppets stepped into the firelight, instantly projecting themselves into Tina's home to hunt them down.

"Originally, we planned to follow the normal ritual and let the sacrifices kill each other. Since something unexpected has happened, let's sacrifice some energy conversion efficiency to speed up the process..."

"We definitely need to speed things up a bit!" A sharp, comical voice suddenly rang out, like a piercing steel needle, causing several weaker members of the Goode family to fall to the ground clutching their heads, groaning in pain as they covered their bleeding ears.

Before the others could react, a huge, mesmerizing, multicolored light crashed down like a mountain, and an archway of a long balloon appeared and disappeared among them!

The field was instantly thrown into chaos, with only a handful of people, including Patriarch Ander, Nick, and the Will brothers, managing to stand.

"So it was just the remains of a demon lord who used human souls as fuel to cast Dark Mass. What a waste of my time waiting!"

Amidst the complaints, dozens of brightly colored red and green ribbons extended like chains, binding the clump of asphalt-like viscous liquid tightly before quickly pulling it into the colorful light.

"Stop!" Seeing that the foundation upon which they had built their fortune was about to be seized by the mysterious enemy, the members of the cult family, who had been stunned by the surprise attack, were furious and desperately launched a counterattack. Phosphorescent ghost masks and arrows formed from shadows were all thrown out, but they hit the colorful light in vain, like waves hitting a reef, splashing out specks of spiritual light.

"No need to struggle, you'll all come in anyway." The colorful ribbons spun like snakes, breaking through the protective spells of the Goode family members, capturing them one by one, and throwing them into the balloon archway as well.

Seeing that the other party was clearly determined to wipe them all out, old Andrew roared furiously, "I am a state representative. The federal government will not let this go unpunished once they discover I am missing!"

Chapter 313 The oriole is behind

Amidst the angry roar, the movements of the colorful ribbons slowed slightly.

With veins bulging on his hands, Ander erected a dark shield to barely withstand the attack, grabbing at it like a lifeline and letting out a rapid, low growl.

"You can have the remains of the demon! But you have to let us go! Otherwise, I guarantee you'll have endless trouble! This place is full of social elites; if they don't show up for even a few days, they'll attract an investigation!"

However, a fawning voice suddenly broke in, exposing his bluff.

"Commander, please don't pay attention to his sweet talk. The Goode family has always kept a low profile and lived in seclusion in order to hide their identity as demon cultists. No one will care in the short term. By the time someone finds out, we will have already erased all traces."

"Jackson Hobb? It was you who lured the enemy here! No wonder you were able to easily bypass the defenses and sneak in!" The lie was exposed in an instant, and Ender was shocked and furious. He glared at the familiar figure of his "family friend" and cursed loudly.

He never imagined that he would be betrayed by his "ally," with whom he had a nearly century-long history of cooperation and who had colluded with him in wicked ways.

"A bunch of lowly ghouls, devouring the dregs of their own kind! Freaks of inbreeding to maintain their extraordinary bloodline! I curse you... I curse your entire family to be wiped out..."

"Hmph." The man in the brown hunting suit merely shrugged at the old sorcerer's vicious curses, completely unconcerned.

We're all rats living in the gutter, so who can be cleaner than whom? As for issues like incest, they're utterly ridiculous. Let alone those in the dark, even among ordinary people and the elite, there are countless other sordid and shameful things.

"There's no need to struggle anymore. This is just an 'invitation to join the group,' not an invitation to take your lives."

"Bullshit! It's just another way of saying enslavement, don't try to fool me!"

Having spent half his life navigating the quagmire of politics, Ander keenly discerned the enemy's unspoken meaning. Knowing he could not escape, he grabbed the spellbook in his hand and hurled it with all his might. The spellbook transformed into a dark, corrupting claw, which slightly blocked the ribbons from entangling him. Then, he turned and jumped into the gray-yellow fire within the magic circle.

The family has been entrenched in this area for two or three centuries, and they must have some secret arrangements. Even if they are caught off guard, they can still use some means to deal with it. This ball of sacrificial demonic fire contains a chaotic teleportation spell.

This escape maneuver was extremely decisive, seemingly catching even the colorful ribbons floating in the air off guard.

However, the next moment, a huge oval balloon was forced out of the fire, shattering it into tiny fragments.

Ander couldn't stop in time and got too close. The moment he touched it, he was firmly sucked in by the blood-red balloon, half of his body sinking in, leaving only his two legs kicking wildly outside.

"Finally, we've got something substantial. If we can subdue seven or eight more extraordinary beings of the same level, we should be able to crush that stubborn bull..." A face covered in pale paint and sporting a round red nose emerged from the hazy colored light. With a flick of his white gloves, he manipulated a bunch of balloons and ribbons to surge up and capture Nick and Will, who were still putting up a last-ditch effort.

With the strongest member of the family captured, the outcome of the battle was no longer in doubt. In the blink of an eye, the remaining members of the Goode family were all over the place and dragged into the tall archway.

Just as the last two prisoners were about to enter, the clown suddenly looked up in astonishment, his orange-yellow, crystalline eyes flashing with an unusual light.

"Boom—Bang!"

A deafening roar erupted, and the entire building seemed to leap upwards as if it had been startled!

With a deafening roar, a thick, dark golden beam of light, like lightning descending from the sky, shattered the hastily lit defensive array, piercing through the roof, foundation, soil, and secret passage as easily as cutting through tofu, and crashing heavily into the underground altar!

The golden light landed without pausing for a moment, like a cannonball fired, creating sonic booms as it crashed into the balloon archway.

"Sizzle!" The imposing humanoid figure, clad in brass mountain-patterned armor, raised its hands in a gesture of support. Wild and ferocious killing intent raged and clashed with the mesmerizing colorful light, producing a series of strange noises that blocked the archway and delayed its closing.

At the same time, a dazzling, mesmerizing silver light shot out, struck the archway, and transformed into a shimmering, translucent giant anchor, emitting strange fluctuations that sealed off the changes in the surrounding spatial magic.

The ancient scroll, covered with countless ornate runes, burned silently. As the scattered ashes and flames flickered, they revealed Zhu Mingyao's slightly regretful expression.

Items related to time and space have always been priceless, and he originally wanted to keep the space anchor that he had obtained from the official source, but now it seems unrealistic.

In a flash, his distracting thoughts crossed his mind, which he quickly dismissed. He pointed his sword, and simultaneously donned solid, solemn golden armor and ethereal, flowing Taoist robes. Multicolored protective spiritual light surged like ocean waves, instantly engulfing the underground altar.

When the light and shadow faded and everything settled, the archway, the demon cultists, the clowns... all the people and things vanished without a trace. Only the few stone tablets engraved with the names of the sacrifices quietly crumbled into dust.

……